The King Comes for Her in her Sleep
by freifraufischer
Summary: Outlaw Queen. Mini-fic. Regina hurts Robin in her sleep when she has a nightmare about her husband the King. TW: Marital Rape


_A/N: Tumblr Prompt: Regina and Robin discussing / dealing with her experience with Leopold. Regina confiding in Robin, Regina being triggered while in bed with Robin, any take you want._

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><p>Contrary to popular belief, Robin liked sleeping in beds. Especially if it meant sleeping next to Regina. He lay next to her in her bed at the house watching her peaceful slumber. It was still early in their relationship and he could still be fascinated by every inch of her body, every quark of her mind. By the way her hair fell and by the way the scar on her lip pulled at her features.<p>

He knew she had nightmares. He hadn't needed to see them to guess. He didn't want to think of her as the Evil Queen. He most of all didn't want her to think of herself that way. But the nightmares would come. Just as his occasionally did from the Ogre Wars. Except hers... hers were so much worse. He wanted to ask about them. He wanted to help her through them. Yet he wasn't sure yet if she would be willing to let him open that particular door.

This time though she sounded distressed enough that it worried him. She had pulled away from him and curled up in a tight ball. "Regina... Regina..." He tried to whisper and put a hand on her shoulder when her own flew back glowing and he was flung across the room before he even knew what happened.

She woke with a start and seeing him holding his head and a hole in the drywall behind him her eyes got even bigger, "Oh my God Robin, I'm so sorry... I ..."

She got out of bed and came to him in a flash. She checked his head, it was bleeding a bit, before he got a hold of her hand. "I'm alright Regina. You were having a dream... I tried to wake you."

She looked away from him. "Come on down to the kitchen and let me clean that up."

He supposed she could do it with magic, but given that she'd hurt him with magic maybe she didn't want to risk it. Still he let her take care of him, because that seemed to calm her down.

"Are you going to tell me about the nightmares?"

"I have a lot of them Robin. I don't really want to tell you about all of them."

"This one was different."

Regina looked away as was wetting a washcloth. "Not really. I have this one a fair bit. Just ... it's been a long time since I slept with anyone else in my bed. You... you should probably not touch me when I'm like that."

"What is it Regina? What was it about?"

Regina said nothing for a long time, but he looked at her with pleading eyes.

"The King. It was a dream about the King."

"Your husband."

"I try not to think of him with that title."

Robin searched for every scrap of information he had on that marriage. He knew from Regina that it had been unhappy. That, if the rumors were to be believed and he had no reason to doubt them in this, she killed him.

"Arranged marriage would have seemed normal to him I'm sure. If you've never experienced love I'm sure it doesn't seem bad. After I met Marian I always felt sorry for those who didn't..."

"I knew what love was." She said quietly. "I ... I could never please him. Not the way he wanted. When I was first married, I didn't know much about sex. It wasn't something I was taught about. How to rule a kingdom, how to amass power... even how to be seductive. But the actual act..."

She shook her head.

"I take it that he took his rights?"

He didn't have to have it spelled out for him. A husband and a beautiful young wife with little experience of the world...

"He tried to be gentle at first I think... I just... I couldn't relax around him and he ..."

Robin's eyes grew big as he started to grasp what he was saying. "Regina... he forced himself on you."

"I'd never seen a man naked on my wedding night. I'm not sure I could have been ready for..."

"Stop it Regina. It wasn't your place to be ready. A man ... a real man ... doesn't need to do that to a girl. Even his wife. If he was standing here today I'd make sure he couldn't do that again."

"I already did that..." She replied with a wry smile. It was the first sign this evening that she was calming down.

"It saved me from having a king to kill."

Robin moved and touched her face, whipping away a tear and touched his forehead to hers.

"I hurt you."

"I have a thick head."

"I didn't want to ever hurt you."

"You didn't."

He wrapped his arms around her and just held her for a very long time.


End file.
